AI helps emergency dispatchers diagnose heart attacks by listening in on phone calls
Humans can only detect a narrow range of sound, but the sounds that AI can detect and analyse are only limited by the sensors they use, now sound is being used to diagnose health conditions in new ways.
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Griffin, M. (2018) 'AI helps emergency dispatchers diagnose heart attacks by listening in on phone calls', 311 Institute, 26 February. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/ai-helps-emergency-dispatchers-diagnose-heart-attacks-by-listening-in-on-phone-calls/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Emergency dispatchers have a tough job, trying to handle as many calls as they can as quickly as they can, while still making sure they’re asking the right kinds of questions that could help end up saving someone’s life, and in the UK, in order to tackle the challenge, the National Health Service (NHS) recently announced they were rolling out a bot to help handle calls. Now though many more dispatchers could start getting additional support from another source, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) called Corti, an AI agent that dispatchers in Copenhagen first started trialling in 2016. Unlike other AI’s what makes Corti unique is the fact that it can listen in on calls, understand words and sounds, and even recognise, just from verbal cues, the “sound” of heart attacks and other medical conditions, a technique that researchers in the USA have also been pursing with some success. Corti then prompts the emergency professional with the right questions to get a more accurate diagnosis.
Corti helps out in other more obvious ways too, such as reminding to ask whoever's on the phone for the address of the incident and ensuring the ambulance en route is headed to the right place, but that said much of its value lies in helping dispatchers refine their diagnosis by detecting and analysing background clues.
How Corti works
In one recent incident, for example, a dispatcher had concluded a man who'd fallen off the roof had broken his back after Corti heard a faint rattling, which fit the sound pattern of a patient attempting to breathe despite a stopped heart. At the time Corti was still in training mode though so it couldn't give recommendations to the dispatcher directly, but nevertheless in the future it could present them with a proper sequence of instructions for them to read out to callers.
Corti was created by a Dutch startup of the same name, Corti Labs, who are now developing the technology further, and like other machine learning platforms Corti refines its diagnosing abilities as it ingests more information, and the company has announced that they’ll soon be ready to take it to the US.
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Why does this matter?
Humans can only detect a narrow range of sound, but the sounds that AI can detect and analyse are only limited by the sensors they use, now sound is being used to diagnose health conditions in new ways.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Sources and further reading
- Corti Labs corti.ai
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 26 February 2018. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2018). AI helps emergency dispatchers diagnose heart attacks by listening in on phone calls. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/ai-helps-emergency-dispatchers-diagnose-heart-attacks-by-listening-in-on-phone-calls/
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